Shortcode Item Updated

Simple & lightweight: Flexible Shortcode for showing the last updated date (and/or time) of an item of a post type.

Shortcode Item Updated plugin banner

Tested Compatibility

Support Project Installation Description Features Usage Shortcode Parameters Bonus Shortcuts Widgets Templates Filters Changelog Plugin Scope / Disclaimer

Support the Project

If you find this project helpful, consider showing your support by buying me a coffee! Your contribution helps me keep developing and improving this plugin.

Enjoying the plugin? Feel free to treat me to a cup of coffee ☕🙂 through the following options:

Installation

Quick Install – as Plugin

  1. Download ZIP: shortcode-item-updated.zip
  2. Upload via WordPress Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
  3. Once activated, you can use the shortcode – see Usage below  

    Alternative: Use as Code Snippet

  4. Below, download the appropriate snippet version
  5. activate or deactivate in your snippets plugin

Download .json version for: Code Snippets (free & Pro), Advanced Scripts (Premium), Scripts Organizer (Premium) –> just use their elegant script import features –> in Scripts Organizer use the “Code Snippets Import”

For all other snippet manager plugins just use our plugin’s main .php file shortcode-item-updated.php and use its content as snippet (bevor saving your snippet: please check for your plugin if the opening php tag needs to be removed or not!).

–> Please decide for one of both alternatives!

Description

Very useful to output the updated date of a custom post type item on a regular page, within a widget or anywhere else… :-)

Backstory: I needed something like that for a client project to display the last updated date/time of a download post type on a regular content page. Since I knew, I would need the same functionality for an other existing site and maybe in future too, I just build it into a “general plugin” rather than a simple code snippet…! There were no existing plugins/ solutions out there (at least I didn’t found them yet…) that fitted my needs so I had to build it myself …

Features

Usage - Examples

Example - default:

[siu-item-updated]

Will show only date (as set in WordPress Settings > General) for the current displayed post (ID pulled via get_the_ID()) - has to be used within the Loop in this default state.

Example - custom 1:

[siu-item-updated post_id="363"]

Will show only date (as set in WordPress Settings > General) for the item of a post type with post ID “363”

Example - custom 2:

[siu-item-updated post_id="363" show_time="yes" show_sep="yes"]

Shortcode Parameters

Parameter Description Default Translateable
post_id ID of the post of any (public) post type get_the_ID() = ID of the current displayed post – in this case, Shortcode has to be used within the Loop!) –
date_format PHP date format setting as in WordPress Settings > General (automatically via date_i18n() )
time_format PHP time format setting as in WordPress Settings > General (automatically via date_i18n() )
show_date will display updated date, by default visible! yes –
show_time yes will display time also no –
show_sep yes will display separator string no –
sep optional separator string  @ (that is a space plus @-symbol, like so: “ @”) yes!
show_label yes will display a label string before date & time values no –
label_before label string before date & time values Last updated: (by default not shown) yes!
label_after label string after time value – useful for languages like German to get time values like “9.40 Uhr” (see the “Uhr” string) ”” (not displayed) –
class additional custom class for the wrapper ”” (none) –
wrapper HTML wrapper element - any HTML5 wrapper is possible span –

Shortcode Parameters - Bonus Shortcuts

Shortcut for German date format to get output d.m.Y like 12.08.2016 – Usage:

date_format="de"

Shortcut for U.S. date format to get output Y-m-d like 2016-08-12 – Usage:

date_format="us"

Widget Usage

NO LONGER recommended! Widgets are outdated, I do not recommend them (and didn’t use them myself for lots of years already!).

Shortcode could be used with “Text” widget – if you have shortcodes for Widgets activated. Possible via this filter:

add_filter( 'widget_text', 'do_shortcode' );

If using extended/ advanced text widget plugins, the Shortcode usage then is already enabled automatically… :-)

NOTE: You have to provide a unique post ID if using this outside of the Loop!

Template Usage (Developers)

Use WordPress’ global do_shortcode() function as a template function, like so:

<?php do_shortcode( '[siu-item-updated post_id="123" show_label="yes"]' ); ?>

–> parameters apply like for regular Shortcode usage (see above)!

NOTE: You have to provide a unique post ID if using this outside of the Loop!

Plugin Filters (Developers)

Changelog – Version History

🎉 v2.2.0 – 2025-03-28

🎉 v2.1.0 – 2025-03-15

🎉 v2.0.0 – 2025-03-14

🎉 Version 2016-08-19

🎉 Version 2016-08-12

🎉 Version 2015-05-26

🎉 Version 2015-05-25

Icon used in promo graphics: © Remix Icon

Copyright: © 2015-2025, David Decker – DECKERWEB.de